Pfizer requested U.S. regulators Monday to authorize use of its up to date COVID-19 booster shot for youngsters ages 5 to 11.
Elementary school-age youngsters are already eligible for kid-size doses of Pfizer’s unique vaccine, that are one-third the dose given to individuals 12 and older. If the Food and Drug Administration agrees, they’d get a kid-size dose of the brand new Omicron-targeted formulation when it’s time for his or her booster.
FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks stated final week that he anticipated a call on boosters for 5- to 11-year-olds quickly.
Pfizer and associate BioNTech additionally introduced a brand new examine of the Omicron-focused booster in even youthful youngsters, these ages 6 months by means of 4 years. The examine is designed to check completely different doses.
Updated boosters made by each Pfizer and Moderna rolled out this month for everybody 12 and older. They’re basically a tweak to the vaccines that have already got saved tens of millions of lives — a mixture or “bivalent” shot that protects towards the unique coronavirus pressure in addition to the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants chargeable for most of at present’s COVID-19 instances.
The hope is that the modified boosters will assist proceed the downward development in new instances and blunt one other winter surge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 4.4 million Americans have gotten a bivalent booster thus far.
